Trayvon Verdict Brings out the Nation’s Shadow even more
Seems like racial rhetoric is at an all time low since the Trayvon verdict. (Big news these past couple of days is the racist defacement of a Jackie Robinson statue).
Been working on a project in light of this event, but deciding how (through which venue to publish it.
In the meantime, while not directly referencing the Trayvon case, this article shows how conservatives won’t even stop at seriously distorting the “truth” they so appeal to!
“Obama Tells Teachers Not To Reprimand Black Students”
http://americanoverlook.com/obama-tells-teachers-not-to-reprimand-black-students/102367
“The order births a new federal bureaucracy and effectively offers black students a green light to misbehave at school.”
This of course becomes yet another platform for everyone to talk about black “problems” and how they will now be ecncouraged to get worse, and how Obama is a racist favoring blacks.
Yet the article does not even cite the source of this claim. No one even questions where it came from; what exactly it was based on, they just jump right on it.
Here is the actual order:
http://www.ed.gov/edblogs/whieeaa/executive-order
What they are probably referencing is:
(vi) reducing the dropout rate of African American students and helping African American students graduate from high school prepared for college and a career, in part by promoting a positive school climate that does not rely on methods that result in disparate use of disciplinary tools, and by supporting successful and innovative dropout prevention and recovery strategies that better engage African American youths in their learning, help them catch up academically, and provide those who have left the educational system with pathways to reentry
Notice the word “disparate“: “Fundamentally distinct or different in kind; entirely dissimilar”.
It’s aiming to prevent blacks from being disciplined worse than others (as for the same level of misbehavior), not saying they should be disciplined less, regardless of how much children who happen to be black might misbehave. (And of course, you have those who say “they’re disciplined worse because they misbehave more” citing statistics of course).
Another one to take note of (for those who insist no one is trying to address the root of black problems):
(iii) decreasing the disproportionate number of referrals of African American children from general education to special education by addressing the root causes of the referrals and eradicating discriminatory referrals
Likewise, this program: Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing http://www.prrac.org/pdf/HUDFirstTermReportCard.pdf becomes “Moving Poor People to Better Neighborhoods”, and thus “blaming a zip code instead of blaming drug use and single-parent households” and everything else wrong with the people. Again, it becomes the cue for the conservative blogosphere to recite everything wrong with blacks, how the neighborhoods will just go down, and how the government is using “social engineering” to take away everyone else’s freedom.
Here are some good recent Trayvon-related articles:
The Right’s Racism Is Showing
http://thedailybanter.com/2013/07/the-rights-racism-is-showing
A Message to Trayvon Martin Sympathizers
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/romany-malco/a-message-to-trayvon-mart_b_3612231.html
Speaker Boehner’s Urgent Opportunity to Unite America
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fernando-espuelas/speaker-boehners-opportun_b_3631507.html
Trayvon Martin and the Irony of American Justice:
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/trayvon-martin-and-the-irony-of-american-justice/277782/
(Points out how a a picture of an older man was used for Trayvon)
Trayvon Martin and Making Whiteness Visible
http://ideas.time.com/2013/07/17/trayvon-martin-and-making-whiteness-visible
Had already posted this in comments of one of the earlier articles, but here again:
Sharpton finally nails all the Right Wing talking points:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/25/al-sharpton-rips-right-wing-spin-machine_n_3651857.html
"ERIPEDIA" 
Get a load of this one:
“FED UP WHITE PERSON. I’m tired of being labeled a ‘racist’ because of the color of my skin”
Who’s calling anyone a racist just because they’re white? People get called racist because of stuff like this:
«I’m so tired and fed up being called racist and hated by dumb a__ ghetto black people all because of me being white, and if any f__head black guy name called me a honkey I’d kicked the hell out of him a second later.»
And all the other labels and stereotypes like this because people are black (they don’t even try the “good ones/bad ones” distinctions anymore.
It’s amazing how this stuff can be spewed out under the premise that they’re the ones being discriminated against, and they apparently think nothing of it.
The person who linked it just retorted that he’s sick of liberals making everything racial, but I don’t think they’re making as much of a racial issue as you think. I see more of this stuff from the conservatives than any liberal. Conservatives take something Sharpton or the news does with a few stories, and then put out hundreds of memes like this, and then the commenters take this as the ago ahead to say stuff like that about blacks; so right there; who’s making a racial issue? People are so busy pointing at the other side, they don’t see what they’re doing!
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/13/are-blacks-names-weird-or-are-you-just-racist.html
In the above original article (now also on p.19-20 of that project I referenced; Makers-Takers), I address a total butchering of a report of a government order addressing discriminatory punishment of black kids as “giving them a green light to misbehave at school.
Well, the conservative social media has done it again!
On “Liberal Logic 101” http://liberallogic101.com/?p=5967 the title is “Holder’s advice for schools: Let Black kids get away with it”
This entry is basically an excerpt of its source article on Breitbart:
HOLDER’S NEW SCHOOL DISCIPLINE GUIDELINES: STOP TARGETING MINORITIES
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/01/08/Govt-offers-new-approach-to-classroom-discipline
Amazing, as conservative as the site is, it told the story as it was, and without spinning it as “let black kids get away with it”!
Amazing how these are the same people constantly calling liberals “pathological liars”. They don’t even read the articles they post, but instead make up stuff that’s (in this case) nearly opposite of what’s actually there!
MSNBC Legal Analyst Lisa Bloom Breaks Down Trayvon Martin Case
http://hiphopandpolitics.com/2014/04/22/msnbc-legal-analyst-lisa-bloom-breaks-trayvon-martin-case/
•Ms Bloom lays out 5 key egregious mistakes and oversights about the trial which led to its messed up outcome. Among the points raised is the mistreatment and harassment of the only non white juror, Maddy. Was racial profiling going on inside the jury room in the midst of the highest profile trial in America about racial profiling?
•The state of Florida failed to argue their best evidence (that Zimmerman’s gun was holstered behind him, making it impossible for Trayvon to see, much less reach for – the essence of Zimmerman’s self-defense claim).
•State Attorney Angela Corey’s big smile and statement “the system worked” after the acquittal raises real questions about whether they wanted to win the case at all.
•One of the key points that the state neglected to bring to light during that fateful last conversation was how Trayvon was joking with Rachel just before the altercation. This revelation would’ve have undercut Zimmerman’s claim that Trayvon was an enraged homicidal attacker.
•Many were lead to believe that Trayvon was some sort of violent thug who was disruptive. That was far from the case. Bloom points out that Trayvon was suspended for being late and having an empty bag with traces of weed in his locker.
Bloom gives larger context to the suspensions by noting how there have been multiple civil rights cases filed against Florida schools for racial bias against African-American boys in suspensions. In the case of Trayvon his infractions did not warrant suspensions under his school’s own written policies.
Trayvon was away from his Miami home the night he lost his life due to an unwarranted ten-day suspension, his third in a few months.
(They do stuff like this, conservatives tell us to stop “whining” about race; playing a “card”, “baiting”, etc., yet they then use this to cite the “statistical facts” of “black kids being in trouble more”).